Health care coverage for about 950 Massachusetts residents who enrolledin the state-subsidized Commonwealth Care insurance program was notactivated because of a computer coding error, the Boston Globereports. The residents had paid for policies by the July 20 deadlinefor coverage guaranteed to begin on Aug. 1, but the insurance companieswere not notified to add the policyholders to the rolls.

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According to Dick Powers -- a spokesperson for the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority,which oversees the subsidized insurance program -- the problem occurredafter the state changed some computer codes that were supposed to sendan electronic message to the connector after beneficiaries paid theirfirst bills. However, the codes failed. State officials were unaware ofthe coding problem until Aug. 1.

The problem has been fixedfor about 150 beneficiaries, and Powers said the connector is in theprocess of correcting the error for the remaining 800 policyholders.Coverage for the policies will be retroactive to Aug. 1. "If they havea problem and show up at the doctor's office, they will be covered,"Powers said (Dembner, Boston Globe, 8/7).\t